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A Note to Parents and Professionals
Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) encourages parents to be involved in their children's sexuality education. We believe very strongly that parents are children's first and most important educators when it comes to sexual health. Research shows that children are more likely to make healthy and responsible decisions about sex when there is positive communication between parents and their children.
However, we also know how difficult it is for many families to talk about this subject. That is why we created teenwire.com — to provide medically accurate sexual health information for teens on the Internet. Now, more than ever, teens are using the Internet as their first stop for sexual health information. Unfortunately, the information they find is very often misleading, misinformed, or false, putting them at risk for a sexually transmitted infection or an unplanned pregnancy.
Regardless of whether teens are sexually active or not, PPFA believes that everyone should be given the medically accurate information they need to make informed and responsible choices that affect their lives. teenwire.com is a private, safe site where teens can get medically accurate and nonjudgmental information about sex and sexual health in language they use and understand.
The information and activities on this site are constructed and presented to encourage a diverse population of teens to learn as much as possible about issues they face every day. As a result, teenwire.com contains some mature content and language. However, it's the way we talk about sex and sexuality that resonates with teens and makes teenwire.com an award-winning site.
A Word About Your Child's Online Security
teenwire.com is in compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). This FTC regulation restricts the personal information that certain website operators can collect from individuals under the age of 13. It is important for parents to understand the laws that regulate children's activity on the Internet. For more information on this regulation, click here.
teenwire.com does require visitors to register to access most areas of our site; however, visitors who wish to use certain features of our site must either register or log in. We do not require that visitors provide personally identifying information as part of the registration process. Registering with teenwire.com allows your child to establish a mailbox in order to submit questions to the Ask the Experts feature of our site and to receive responses through her or his individual mailbox on teenwire.com. The mailbox allows your child to communicate with us without ever submitting an e-mail address.
Registration also allows visitors to post responses to the In Your Own Words section — a moderated, virtual bulletin board. Because these sections of the Web site require registration, teenwire.com uses session-based cookies so that we can quickly determine whether a visitor is registered or not. Contrary to what you've heard about cookies, session-based cookies don't get written to your child's computer hard drive at all. Because session-based cookies are held in the browser's memory, these cookies are erased as soon as your child closes your browser.
Our online chats are also strictly moderated. We do not collect any information that would allow us to get in contact with your child or for your child to contact another participant in the chat room. Participants are only able to communicate through the moderators and experts who are PPFA staff. For more details about how we ensure your child's safety and privacy, please read our privacy statement.
We value and support parents in their task of raising sexually healthy children and hope that teenwire.com is a useful resource. We also value your feedback about how we can make this site more useful. Please feel free to share your thoughts by e-mailing us at twstaff@ppfa.org.
AWARDS
2007: Webby Awards, nominee, Best Health Website
2006: Webby Awards, nominee, Best Education Website
2006: Webby People's Voice Awards, nominee, Best Education Website
2005: Web Marketing Association Web Awards, winner, Outstanding Website
2005: World Wide Web Health Awards, winner, Merit Award
2004: Webby Awards, nominee, Best Health Website
2004: Webby People's Voice Awards, nominee, Best Health Website
2003: World Wide Web Health Awards, winner, Silver Award
2002: World Wide Web Health Awards, winner, Gold Award
2002: International Health and Medical Media ("Freddie") Awards, winner, Adolescent Health
2002: International Health and Medical Media ("Freddie") Awards, finalist, Websites
2002: Webby Awards, winner, Best Health Website
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